Celebrating the New Year ? Not for Muslims !

Celebrating the New Year -?

January is named after Janus, the Roman god of doors and gateways. He was commonly depicted in statues, carvings and paintings as a two headed man with one head facing forward and the other head facing backwards.

In 46BC Julius Caesar chose January 1st as the first day of the New Year as Janus symbolically represented the door to the New Year. Wild parties and orgies were held on the night before the New Year’s Day as a re-enactment of the chaos which Roman mythology depicted as preceding the cosmos or the ordered world whose organization was set by the gods. Furthermore, by that time, Janus had become, in practice, the highest god receiving the ritual sacrifices of Roman worshippers before the other gods, including the chief god, Jupiter.

Thus, in its essence the celebrations of the New Year on January 1st and New Year’s Eve, the night before, are a part and parcel of pagan religious rituals based on idolatrous beliefs in false gods. Consequently, it is completely Haraam (sinful and forbidden) for Muslims to participate in or adopt any of its related rituals, customs and symbols.

If a non-Muslim greets a Muslim, “Happy New Year”, the Muslim is not allowed to respond in a similar manner or say, “Same to you.” Instead, in order not to offend or hurt the feelings of non-Muslim friends or acquaintances, one may say instead, “Happy holiday.”

As for celebrating the New Year according to the Islamic calendar which begins with the month of Muharram, this is also not permissible from a number of perspectives. First and foremost, if one does so believing that it is pleasing to Allah to do so, thereby transforming it into an act of worship, it becomes a Bid‘ahor cursed innovation in the religion about which the Prophet (pbuh) said, “Every innovation in religion is misguidance and all misguidance leads to the Hellfire.” If one does so merely as a custom, it is still impermissible as it falls under the prohibition of imitation of pagan customs about which the Prophet (pbuh) said, “Whoever imitates a people becomes one of them.”

[1] Pope Gregory 13th who set the modern calendar, the Gregorian calendar, also officially fixed the first day of the year for Christian Europe as January 1st in 1582.

11 Responses to "Celebrating the New Year ? Not for Muslims !"

Unity in Diversity
The days of religious diversity are numbered. I love and respect religious diversity. I fear a one world religion. If diversity dies, unity will too, eventually. All things are created in pairs. One cannot survive for long without the other. Unfortunately, diversity is a spent force. It has failed to achieve lasting world peace, because man thinks he is better than the other. The other is divine; love the other, or we stand to lose diversity forever. Unity is divine and diversity is temporal. The known devil is better than the unknown angel. Diversity, the known devil, would give way to unknown Unity if we do not preserve diversity. Much to my dismay, I foresee the collapse of diversity and the rise of unity and it is destined to prevail until the end times. Under unity, there would be peace for a specified period. Then again, decadence would set in and the rapid slide to chaos would lead mankind to doomsday. When man realizes the value of diversity it’ll be too late. We can beat Destiny and Doomsday in its own game. If we can make diversity work perfectly for us, poor unity would become redundant and we can live as long as the sun lives. Knowing man, this is just wishful thinking. Unity will win and so will doomsday, eventually. Cherish dear diversity while it lasts. Love the other.

The choice to celebrate the end of a year and the beginning of another one is a matter of choice for every one. Those who celebrate do so to simply entertain themselves the best way they can at this period of the year: it is when, even, the poor people in the society go an extra mile to provide the best for their family and themselves. Well, many with ungodly minds can decide to go the criminal way to meet their targets. Whoever does it to damn his/her own soul will definitely give an account for it. I’m not in affirmative defending the celebration of the new year but I will want to demand that every one should be allowed to have the free mind to make a choice not to plague the minds of others with guilt or confusion at what is supposed to be a celebration moment. To me, this is a celebration that should unite the entire world in a way beyond all possible religious divides. Moreover, it should be understood that this period of the year is not experienced the same time all over the world and no body appeared to be conscious of a so-called Janus in our own part of the world; some body will say that is the more reason people should stay clear of it. No, let them decide. If any one decides to provide a guide it will be nice and this is an approach I will want every religious leader to consider.

However, it must be noted that abstinence from what may be conceived as an heathen practice may not be sufficient to take any one to heaven. God demands that we should all follow peace with our neighborours and holiness which is only practicable by surrendering to the Lordship and saviourhood of Jesus Christ. The message is very clear, even to the blind, that only Jesus is the way that leads to God’s kingdom. Any one who aspires to see God in the final day must seek this way and follow it. Don’t ask me about the way that must have taken the ilk of father Abraham to heaven, if it was Jesus’ way or not. Remember, he made it clear while he was here on earth that before Abraham was he was and the Holy Bible confirmed that he is the word with which God created the world and the contents.

A very important point to note please: you can’t train your self to live a holy life. It is an experience that is made possible only after one had surrender to Jesus and accepted him as one’s Lord and Saviour. He will come to partner with you to make godly living easier and practicable. No amount of water can wash away our sin, only the blood of Jesus can. Simply say where you are now from the deepest part of your mind and with all sincerity: Lord Jesus, I believe you are my saviour; I give my life to you today; Please come in and save me from the power of sin and its allurements; Thank you Jesus. Get a copy of the Bible and seek the help of any good Christian around you wherever and whenever necessary. God bless you as you oblige.

Allah literally means The God. There is no female equivalent for the popular male name Abdallah meaning Slave of God. The female equivalent which should be Abda-allah is non-existent. I am 53 and have been around but never came across this female name. The reason, I believe is, Almighty in His mass wisdom does not wish to consider women as His slave even in name. Whatever God does not Will, will not happen. The God has not willed women to be called Slaves of God. The absence of slave names for women means God has placed women on a divine spiritual pedestal. So high a lordly position has Islam given to women. But man in his stupidity treats women as slaves. Most Muslims are ignorant of their obligations and duties to women. If all Muslims treated women with love and respect (like the Holy Prophet treated his wives) Islam would be the world’s ONLY religion. Muslims would once again be world rulers. But the problem is, if not as the better half, most Muslims are not even prepared to treat women as their equal. With such mentality, Muslims would always be the slaves of their selves. We would never be able to rise above the West and our enemies would continue to dominate us.

The Caliphate was a spiritual empire. To recreate the Islamic Empire our spirituality has to be nurtured. Women represent spiritualism and men represent materialism. If man doesn’t respect women, he is a slave of his self. He is a slave of materialism. Be a slave of spiritualism and you can be the lord of the Materialists. Be a slave of women and you can be the lord of the West. Global Caliphate is ours for the taking if we treat ALL women (spiritualism – also symbolizing the other) with love and respect. So long the Muslims do not respect the other; they wouldn’t even be able to rule their selves, let alone the world. We can rule the world once again if we loved the other. The other is divine. Spiritualism, women and the guy in front of you – all represent the other and are thus divine. Principle of all religion is not to dominate the other. The first step to seek Enlightenment is not to dominate women. This is the wisdom behind the absence of slave names for women in Islam. To summarize Islam – You is divine; I is temporal. Love You.

Most so-called Muslims would say I am an apostate if this message is put to them. The world has little choice but wait for the right person to come along to say this. Muslims are waiting for the Mahdi to appear. He is believed to restore the original theology of Islam.

Asalam alaykun i great u with the name of Allah. Celebrating New Year, not even concern any Muslim at all. Even prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) said ” INNA L HARRAM BAYINA WA INN L ALLAL BAYINA. but why can we stay away from what is not real. Let us follow what Allah’s says and His Messenger prophet Muhhamed (S.A.W). January 1st is Harram in our Religion. May Almighty ALLAH BE WITH US amen.

What is far worse that greeting new year, is a muslim preacher wearing a necktie and speaking about Islam. Zakir Naik looks like a western man in his dress except for the cap. Most of the western converts do not wear ties. Why cannot Zakir take a lesson from them.

what i see to new year celebration is that, government use Jan to DEC to do their financial planning and this same calender is used to pay salaries in the western countries. this same western countries are powerful, they control world economy. so we don’t have choice than to recognized the calender. even, we know that its not accepted in Muslim religion. i believed one day God will liberate both Muslim and non Muslim from this idols months.